Friday, February 03, 2012

Flexible Friday Random Ten

My day today required flexibility. I was scheduled to do dialysis on two people. I couldn't get the access (an arterio venous graft) to work on one patient, and left word with the doctor. I packed up and went to my next patient. At the end of treatment, I discovered that they are mother and son. At 72, the mother has lost both legs to uncontrolled diabetes. The second one must have been recent-- the staples from the amputation are still in. The son, who is 45, has lost one. Both are obese; he weighed over 500 pounds. It was really, really sad.

Since I did not do one of the treatments, I was sent to another hospital to do another patient I'd tried to treat on Wednesday. A doctor was supposed to put a new venous catheter in at 4 pm. I got to the hospital about 4:30 and it was not done. In fact, the doctor was not even at the hospital. I ate my lunch-- which was now really a dinner-- and discovered that the doctor was still not there. I was sent home at 5:30 with my boss' blessings.

My immediate boss, the one who is a nurse and not an accountant, was there, having met with the big chiefs of the hospital chain that is our main account. The other nurse who was waiting for the same doctor to put a new catheter in another patient and we got to chew the fat with our boss for about 45 minutes and get the skinny on what's going on. It put me at ease-- for now.

If there's anything I've discovered is that to be an acute care dialysis nurse, I have to be flexible. And that I am.

Tomorrow I'm working-- the first Saturday I've worked in a while. Tonight I'm meeting some classmates for a drink. I've got to take it easy since I'll be working 12 or 13 hours tomorrow. But tonight, it'll be good to catch up with my classmates, who have all got jobs now. I'm looking forward to hearing about their experiences, good and bad. And I suspect they've learned that they need to be flexible in their jobs as well.

1. Too Much Too Young- The Specials
2. Make Me Smile- Chicago
3. LIttle Bit O' Soul- The Music Explosion
4. Fallout- The Police
5. Tighten Up- The Black Keys
6. Only Women Bleed- Alice Cooper
7. I Say A Little Prayer- Aretha Franklin
8. Psycho Killer- The Talking Heads
9. Living For the City- Stevie Wonder
10. Autumn Leaves- Tony Bennett


Notes:
1. Love, love, love that first Specials record.
2. The great thing about being middle-aged is not having to make excuses for loving big old dumb pop songs.
3. Great mid-sixties one-hit wonder
4. A Police B-side
5. Love the video for this one
6. Alice Cooper's grown on me over the years. Didn't hurt that he had a great time lampooning himself in "Wayne's World."
7. Grew up listening to my dad's copy of "Aretha's Gold."
8. My kids love this song since doing it in "Rock Band."
9. This song is still powerful today.
10. Tony's still on my "Bucket List." Gotta fix that this year.

4 comments:

Pat Tillett said...

Number nine has always been one of my favorites. SW was a genius.
Wow! Not only a long day, but it sounds like a stressful day.
I'm really glad to hear that ALL of your former classmates have jobs! That is good news for us all I think...

BeckEye said...

Tighten Up is such an insanely sexy song.

Churlita said...

Take a deep breath and listen to your random playlist. The Specials alone should make you feel better.

The Notorious B.I.F. said...

Reading this post reinforces why I hate most Doctors. Too many have a God Complex and treat their patients and a number and not a living person who should be treated with dignity. I have Larsen's Syndrome (a condition that affects my joints and connective tissue), I can't walk and have spent a good portion of my life in Hospitals. You don't have 30+ operations without spending a lot of time in the Hospital. Anyway... I consider myself to be a Professional Patient and as such I like to think my main "Job" is knocking snobby Doctors off their high horse. I look at it like this... My Insurance/Medicade pays the Doctor, I pay for the Insurance and into Medicade, so I'm the Boss and the Doctor is my Employee. Me and people like me are the ones who put the pennies in their Italian Penny Loafers and keep them driving their $100,000.00 Car. The Doctor gives me his opinion, but I make the final call. Too many people think they can't say "No!" to a Doctor. I say "No!" all the time. If the Doctor doesn't do what I ask (with in reason, I wouldn't ask them to do anything unethical.), or doesn't treat me with respect, I fire them and get a new Doctor who will do as I ask and treat me with respect. A lot of Doctors forget that the patient is in charge. Seeing the look on a Doctor's face when I fire them is priceless, they don't know how to act.
I'm looking forward to checking out more of your Blog and reading more of your Work stories.
The music list is great! There are a few I don't know, but will check out.
Sorry for the novel of a comment, inconsiderate Doctors get me pissed.